Mom of boy, 7, who was shot: 'He's afraid to come outside'

Tasha McDuffie, mother of 7-year-old shooting victim Tyvion Jackson, speaks out about the violence and her son's current condition. (Posted August 19, 2013)

Tasha McDuffie, mother of 7-year-old shooting victim Tyvion Jackson, speaks out about the violence and her son's current condition. (Posted August 19, 2013)

CAPTION

Chicago police are looking for the person who shot a 7-year-old boy in Chicago.

Chicago police are looking for the person who shot a 7-year-old boy in Chicago.

Adam Sege, Rosemary Regina Sobol and Jeremy GornerTribune reporters

The mother of a 7-year-old boy who was shot by stray gunfire says he is "traumatized" and now frightened to leave his West Side home.

Tyvion Jackson was carrying his cousin's bicycle into his West Garfield Park neighborhood home when he was shot in his left arm and his shoulder, said his mother Tasha McDuffie. The boy had just returned from a picnic with his family around 9 p.m. Sunday. He was released from Mount Sinai Hospital this morning.

"He's doing fairly well. He's just traumatized and he's afraid to come outside," a visibly frustrated McDuffie said today on her front porch.

Tyvion is the 10th child age 7 or under to be shot in Chicago in less than two months, according to a Tribune analysis. His shooting capped off another violent weekend with more than 30 people shot, 6 fatally.

Police said a group standing on a corner down the block from the home in 4200 block of West Fifth Avenue began arguing with someone sitting in a car. Someone from the group pulled out a gun and opened fire.

McDuffie had just made it in her house when she heard the shots. Tyvion was shot while he was helping his cousin bring her bike up some steps.

"He just placed his arms up and said he had been shot," she said. "He heard the shots and he felt (the) shot in his arm."

The gunman fled north. Police say they are questioning a person of interest.

McDuffie said she became panic-stricken when she couldn't quickly find her cell phone to call 911. "My daughter had to call an ambulance," McDuffie said.

McDuffie said doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

Police said the shooting occurred in an area where the Four Corner Hustlers street gang has been embroiled in a conflict with several other gangs as well as feuding internally.

But McDuffie said her block is normally very safe. She said her son usually can ride his bicycle to a nearby playground or basketball court.

Tyvion, the youngest of McDuffie's three children, attends second grade at Legacy Charter Elementary School in the West Side's North Lawndale neighborhood.

McDuffie said she's lived in her two-story brick house for two years but Sunday night's shooting may have been the final straw.

"Now he can't come outside," McDuffie said of Tyvion. "We have to move."

More than two dozen family members gathered on sidewalks outside the emergency room while Tyvion was being treated at Mount Sinai.

""I'm relieved that he's alive. But he's still a baby," a cousin, Shean Sutton, 33, said outside the hospital overnight.

Relatives said Tyvion loves to ride his bicycle. "Kids can't be kids no more," said Angel Little, a 33-year-old family friend. "It's just a cold world out here."

"Thank God, he's okay," said another cousin, Tiffani Wilson. Relatives had come from across the city to be together, she said.